E 
4 5f) 









AND .A.FTER 




Copyright ]^^ 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



All Around the Civil War 

OR 

BEFORE AND AFTER 



A BOOKLET under the above title has been composed and 
compiled by the undersigned, for the purpose of giving in 
concise form the views of the people of those Southern States, 
vi^hich, in 1861, passed Ordinances of Secession, and the causes 
which led to those Acts. 

Beginning with the settlement at Jamestown, historical facts 
are truthfully traced to the end of the book — or to the termina- 
tion of the war. 

It is perhaps not too much to claim that in this booklet all the 
essential facts affecting the great tragedy of which it treats are 
stated, and the Southern people are acquitted of the many false 
charges made against them in so-called histories emanating from 
prejudiced authors. 

In its pages it is shown that all the States — that is to say the thir- 
teen which formed the first Union — at one time seceded; that sub- 
sequently the New England States were the first to claim the right 
to secede; and that the consensus of opinion, in the early days, 
was that the right existed. 

The knowledge of these historical facts is essential to the con- 
tinuance of our self-respect and our reverence for the heroes who 
sacrificed all save honor in defense of the Southern cause. 

OPINIONS OF THE BOOKLET 

Mr. C. C. Calhoun, Lawyer, of Washington, D. C, says: 

"It affords me much pleasure to state * * * I am greatly 
pleased to find the causes leading to, and the questions involved in, 
the Civil War, most clearly and precisely presented. * * * In 
a few pages, by an attractive way, he has covered the subject in a 
most convincing manner. * * * The publication and wide 
dissemination of this article would be most beneficial, not only to 
the South, but to all sections." 

Maj. James McDowell Carrington, Washington, D. C, says: 
"I think it would be a most useful contribution to Southern 
literature. It would not only be interesting to Southerners, but 
should be so to candid and patriotic citizens all over the Union. 
He gives a brief history of the formation of our Government, and 
makes some interesting comments. * * * iJe establishes the 
fact that the idea of secession originated in Massachusetts, and 



It seems to be the common lot of nations as of individuals that 
posterity lauds the successful and condemns the unsuccessful without 
reference to merit or justice. 

I have always believed that a knowledge of "the truth, the W'hole 
truth and nothing but the truth," in the minds of the people, would 
be the vindication of the Southern States in connection with our 
Civil War. 

Several large volumes have been published by Southern writers 
for the purpose of this vindication but they deal largely in details of 
actions rather than with principles. The size of these publications 
makes them inaccessible to the majority. 

For more than forty years I have indulged the hope, that some 
abler pen than mine would collate and publish in concise form the 
essential historical facts preceding and causing the war. This not 
having been done by any other, I have assumed the task. 

"Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, 
and, "because man goeth to his long home," I desire to contribute 
my mite, by the publication of my booklet. "All Around the Civil 
War, or Before and After," to perpetuating in honor the memories of 
the heroes who fought for the Southern Confederacy. 

Wm. Hawn. 



ALL AROUND the CIVIL WAR 



OR 



BEFORE AND AFTER 



BY 

WILLIAM HAWN 



^Set down naught in Malice^* 



PRINTED BY 

WYNKOOP HALLENBECK CRAWFORD COMPANY 

New York 






^Lt8R^RY ot 0ONlJi«£S$y 
two Ctples Hecbivui.! 9 

MAY 29 1908 

•^ COPY fi. 



COPYRIGHTED BY 
WILLIAM HAWN 

1908 



DEDICATION. 
*• # HIS booklet is respectfully dedicated to the 
noble women of the South, and to the memory 
of those who have passed away, zvho through long 
years of great trial and almost inconceivable priva- 
tion devoted their efforts with Christian zeal to en- 
couraging the soldiers in the field; to nursing the 
sick, and to comforting the dying. 

Their untiring energy, their fortitude and pa- 
tience under the most trying circumstances to which 
any people may be subjected, are worthy the emu- 
lation of all nations through all time. 

W. H. 



PREFACE. 

This booklet is only a compilation of certain well known 
recorded events — matters of history — opinions of, and expres- 
sions by, many men, with some reflections by the compiler. 
What it contains is gathered from many sources. Any opin- 
ions of the compiler herein expressed were and are honestly 
entertained, and are honestly expressed. 

Having read remarks by Hon. G. M. Dallas, Senator from 
Pennsylvania, that, "The Constitution in its words is plain and 
intelligible, and is meant for the homebred, unsophisticated 
understandings of our fellow citizens,"^ and by Judge Story, 
"A Constitution of government is addressed to the common 
sense of the people and never was designed for trials of logical 
skill or visionary speculation,"^ the compiler was emboldened 
to express his common sense understanding of its meaning, 
as to certain Articles. 

It is not the object of this booklet to reawaken the ani- 
mosities of half a century ago — far from it. The hope of the 



i"The Constitution," W. Hickey, p. 27. 
'Idem, p. 27. 



compiler is that he may truthfully present, in concise form, the 
reason why the Southern States seceded — to relieve the South- 
ern people from the charge of treason — to set forth briefly the 
efforts they made to maintain peace in order that their de- 
scendants may not, under the influence of so-called histories, 
false, partizan and vituperative, cease to honor their fathers. 

It is also his hope that, if perchance the following pages 
should be impartially read by any on the "opposite side," 
erroneous impressions may be eradicated; that confidence in 
the Southern people may be restored, and that they truly accept 
the results of the war in good faith may be believed. 

It may not be out of place to say a few words about the 
compiler. He is a native of Alabama, was rocked in a State's 
rights cradle, and suckled on secession pap; was in the Con- 
federate service all through the war; from his youth he 
favored the abolition of slavery in his native State; now, in 
the "sere and yellow leaf," he yields to none in his devotion 

to the Union as it is. 

Wm. Hawn, 
Late Seventh Louisiana Regiment. 



ALL AROUND THE CIVIL WAR 



April Jj, i6oy, the first permanent settlement by English- 
men in America was made by the landing of about one hun- 
dred men at a point in Virginia, to which they gave the name 
of Jamestown, in honor of their King, James I. Nearly, or 
quite half of them perished in the first summer from a pesti- 
lence. 

It is needless to the purpose of the writer to dwell upon 
the hardships of this first colony; to rehearse their sufferings; 
to trace their growth in numbers and expansion, or to refer 
to their religion, characters or surroundings, for this purpose 
is an effort to show that the Southern States, which seceded 
from the United States in 1860-61, exercised a power reserved 
to them under the Constitution ; that they were driven thereto 
by the General Government having passed into the control of a 
party inimical to their constitutional rights; that African 
slavery was not the cause of secession, but only an incident, 
and that the Southern people were not rebels. 

A seed had been planted at Jamestown from which was to 
arise a form of Republican-legislative government, and a lib- 



8 ALL AROUND THE CIVIL WAR 

erty, having no prior existence among men ; a form of govern- 
ment destined to modify all others; to improve the conditions 
of all mankind, and to become one of the greatest world 
powers. 

Other colonies in due course were founded by peoples from 
various countries which, under similar conditions, grew and 
expanded until there were thirteen, all owning allegiance to 
the British crown. 

The injustice and bad faith of England finally drove the 
colonies to rebel, and to an agreement between them under 
the title of "Articles of Confederation and Perpetual 
Union.'' 

Sept. 5, 1774, a Congress composed "of a number of dele- 
gates, chosen and appointed by the several colonies and prov- 
inces of North America" assembled in Philadelphia, at "The 
Carpenter's Hall," the object of the Congress being to form 
"a bond of Union," and "to connect the powers and means of 
the colonies for the common defense." 

Nov. 15, 1777, these articles were agreed to by the dele- 
gates of the thirteen original States in Congress assembled, 
subject to the ratification of the Legislatures of the several 
States, and were ratified by the States on dates as follows : 

By eight States July g, 177S; one State July 21, 1778; one 



OR BEFORE AND AFTER 9 

State July 24, 1778; one State Nov. 26, 1778; one State Feb. 
22, 1779; one State March i, 1781. 

These Articles provided that : 

1. "The style of this Confederacy shall be 'The United 
States of America.' 

2. "Each State retains its sovereignty, freedom and inde- 
pendence, and every power, jurisdiction and right which is 
not, by this confederation, delegated to the United States in 
Congress assembled. 

3. "The said States hereby severally enter into a firm 
league of friendship, with each other * * * binding them- 
selves to assist each other against all force offered to, or at- 
tacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion, 
sovereignty, trade, or on any other pretense whatever. 

4. " * * * and the people of each State shall have free 
ingress and regress to and from any other State, and shall en- 
joy therein all the privileges of trade and commerce subject 
to the same * * * restrictions as the inhabitants thereof re- 
spectively, provided that such restriction shall not extend so 
far as to prevent the removal of property imported into any 
State to any other State of which the owner is an inhabitant, 
etc. 



lo ALL AROUND THE CIVIL WAR 

5. "Provides for the appointment of delegates to the 
Congress of the United States, etc. 

6. "No State, without the consent of the United States 
in Congress assembled, shall * * * enter into any conference, 
agreement, alliance or treaty, etc. 

7. "When land forces are raised by any State for the 
common defense, all officers under the rank of Colonel shall 
be appointed by the Legislature, etc. 

8. "Provides for charges for war and other expenses, etc. 

9. "The United States in Congress assembled shall deter- 
mine on peace or war. * * * No State shall be deprived of 
territory for the benefit of the United States. * * * Settle- 
ments of disputes between States provided for * * * also 
regulating trade with Indians. * * * Establishing or regu- 
lating post roads. * * * The United States in Congress as- 
sembled shall never engage in war, nor enter into treaties, nor 
appropriate money * * * unless nine States assent to the 
same. 

10. "Confers limited powers on the committee of the 
States, or any nine of them. 

11. "Canada may be admitted to this confederation, etc. 



OR BEFORE AND AFTER ii 

12. "Provides for payment of bills of credit, etc. 

13. "Every State shall abide by the determination of the 
United States in Congress assembled, on all questions which, 
by this Confederation is submitted to them; and the Articles 
of this Confederation shall be inviolably observed by every 
State, and the Union shall be Perpetual ; nor shall any altera- 
tion hereafter be made in any of them, unless such altera- 
tion be agreed to in a Congress of the United States, and be 
afterward confirmed by the Legislatures of every State." 

It is worthy of note that in these Articles the words 
"United States" occur more than fifty times, and only twice 
is the word United written with a capital U, in Article i and 
in Article 9, which, perhaps, indicates slight respect for the 
Union ! 

These Articles were soon found to be defective; first, in 
that they did not provide "the necessary means of raising a 
revenue," and second, in the absence of "power to regulate 
and control the foreign trade and commerce of the country."^ 

February s, I7^i> ^ member from New Jersey moved a 
recommendation to the States that Congress be vested with 
additional powers to provide means for paying the public debt 



i"The Constitution," W. Hickey, p. 131. 



12 ALL AROUND THE CIVIL WAR 

and prosecuting the existing war, by laying duties on imports 
and prize goods. Rhode Island refused to comply with this 
recommendation, giving under three heads the reasons for 
such refusal. 

These reasons were : 

First. — "That the proposed duty would be unequal in its 
operation, bearing hardest upon the most commercial States, 
and so would press particularly hard upon that State which 
draws its chief support from commerce." 

To this the Committee of Congress, having charge of the 
matter, replied, "that every duty on imports is incorporated 
with the price of the commodity, and ultimately paid by the 
consumer, with a profit on the duty itself, as a compensation 
to the merchant for the advance of his money." 

Second. — "That the recommendation proposes to intro- 
duce into that and the other States officers unknown and un- 
accountable to them, and so is against the Constitution of the 
State." 

To this the reply was : "The doctrine advanced by Rhode 
Island would perhaps prove, also, that the Federal Govern- 
ment ought to have the appointment of no internal officers 
whatever." * * * 



OR BEFORE AND AFTER 13 

Third. — "That by granting to Congress the power to col- 
lect moneys from the commerce of these States, indefinitely 
as to time and quantity, and for the expenditure of which they 
would not be accountable to the States, they (Congress) 
would become independent of their constituents, and so the 
proposed impost is repugnant to the liberty of the United 
States." 

To this the Committee replied : "The fund proposed was 
sufficiently definite as to time * * * the resolution recom- 
mending the duty specifies the object to be the discharge of 
debts already contracted, etc."^ 

The arguments of the Committee prevailed, and the "Arti- 
cles of Confederation and Perpetual Union," which were 
agreed to by the delegates of all the States in Congress as- 
sembled as early as Nov. 15, 1777, were finally ratified by the 
last of the thirteen, as late as March i, 178 1 , having been prac- 
tically under consideration since Sept. 5, 1774. 

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

July 4, 1776, Congress in Committee of the Whole, agreed 
to the Declaration of Independence, which reads, in part, as 
follows : 



'"The Constitution," W. Hickey, p. 131 



14 ALL AROUND THE CIVIL WAR 

That "all men are born free and equal; that they are en- 
dowed with certain inalienable rights; that among these are 
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness ; that to secure these, 
governments are instituted among men, deriving their just 
powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any 
form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is 
the right of the people to alter or abolish it and to institute 
a new government, * * * organizing its powers in such form 
as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and 
happiness. * * * But when a long train of abuses and usur- 
pations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design 
to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it 
is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide 
new guards for their future security. Such has been the pa- 
tient sufferance of these colonies, and such is now the neces- 
sity which constrains them to alter their former systems of 
government. The history of the present King of Great 
Britain is a history of injuries and usurpations, all having in 
direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over 
these States ; he has refused his assent to laws, the most whole- 
some and necessary for the public good ; he has forbidden his 
governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance ; 
he has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of 



OR BEFORE AND AFTER 15 

large districts of people ; * * * he has endeavored to prevent 
the population of these States; he has obstructed the adminis- 
tration of justice; he has excited insurrections amongst us. 

"We have warned them from time to time ; * * * we have 
appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we 
have conjured them, by the ties of our common kindred, to 
disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt 
our connections and correspondence; they have been deaf to 
the voice of justice and magnanimity. We must therefore 
acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation, and 
hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in 
peace, friends. 

"We, therefore, by the authority of the good people of 
these colonies, solemnly publish and declare. That these United 
States are, and of right ought to be. Free and Independent 
States." 

This declaration was signed by the representatives from 
the "Free and Independent States" of New Hampshire, Mas- 
sachusetts Bay, Rhode Island, Delaware, Connecticut, Mary- 
land, New York, Virginia, New Jersey, North Carolina, Penn- 
sylvania, South Carolina and Georgia. 

It will be seen herein and hereafter, how the practices of 
the King, so eloquently protested against in the "Declaration 



i6 ALL AROUND THE CIVIL WAR 

of Independence," were revived in the actions of a sectional 
party, which arose in the New England States and spread 
over the vast domain, which was freely ceded to the United 
States by the State of Virginia. 

The "Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union" hav- 
ing proved ineffectual to meet the exigencies of the Union, it 
was necessary that a better system should be devised. Feh. 21, 
1787, a resolution was offered in Congress that recommenda- 
tion be made to the different Legislatures to send forward to 
a convention to be held in Philadelphia on the "second Mon- 
day in May next," to take into consideration the situation of 
the United States, etc. This resolution was passed with little 
delay. Delegates from the several States met as suggested. 
After deliberate and candid discussion, the Constitution, as 
finally prepared, was agreed to by the assembled delegates, on 
Sept. 17, 1787, and was ratified by the several States upon 
dates ranging from Dec. 7, 1787, to May 2Q, 1790. 

THE CONSTITUTION. 

The articles to which consideration will be given herein 
are: 

The Exordium.— "We the people of the United States, in 
order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure 



OR BEFORE AND AFTER 17 

domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote 
the general welfare and secure the blessings of Liberty to our- 
selves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Consti- 
tution for the United States of America. 

Article i. Sec. 8, c.ii. The Congress shall have power 
— To declare war, etc. 

12. To raise and support armies, etc. 

15. To provide for calling forth the militia, etc. 

Article 4. Sec. 2, c.i. The citizens of each State shall 
be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in 
the several States. 

C.3. No person held to service or labour in one of the 
States, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall in 
consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged 
from such services or labour, but shall be delivered up on 
claim of the party to whom such service or labour may be due. 

Sec 3, C.I. * * No new State shall be formed or created 
within the jurisdiction of any other State, etc. 

AMENDMENTS. 

Article 2. A well-regulated militia being necessary to the 
security of a Free country, the right of a people to keep and 
bear arms, shall not be infringed. 



i8 ALL AROUND THE CIVIL WAR 

Article 4. The right of the people to be secure in their 
persons, homes, papers and effects, against unreasonable 
searches and seizures, shall not be violated, etc. 

Article 9. The enumeration in the Constitution of cer- 
tain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others 
retained by the people. 

Article 10. The powers not delegated to the United 
States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, 
are reserved to the States or to the people. 

SLAVERY. 

"This year, 1619, about the last of August, came a Dutch 
man-of-war" to Jamestown, Va., "that sold us twenty ne- 
gars,"^ and this was the rising upon the horizon of a cloud- 
speck, having in it the germ of a mighty storm that was des- 
tined to sweep over the country, spreading death and destruc- 
tion over a once happy people — sacrificing hundreds of thou- 
sands of lives — costing thousands of millions of dollars — and 
causing the compulsory emancipation of nearly four millions 
of negro slaves, without compensation to their owners, and 
in violation of the Constitution. (See Art. 4, Sec. 2, clause 3, 
also Amendments, Articles 4, 5 and 10.) Negro slavery thus 



1 "Virginia," Cooke, p. 123. 



OR BEFORE AND AFTER 



19 



introduced, soon extended to all the other colonies. Slaves 
were recognized as property; owners were secured in their 
possession, with the right to dispose of them as property and 
to remove with them to any State. Conditions in the Northern 
and Southern States were so diverse, that it soon became evi- 
dent that what might be profitable in one section might be 
unprofitable in the other. So it was with negro slavery. The 
Southern States, with a more genial climate, a more fertile 
soil and a difference in products, were better adapted for the 
employment of negro slaves, than were the Northern or New 
England States. The people of the North, away from the sea, 
were farmers. Their products were mostly hay and grain, 
but the climate was too cold for the negroes. Near the sea 
the people were fishermen, manufacturers, traders, ship-build- 
ers and sailors — occupations requiring skill not possessed by 
the slaves. In the South the people were largely, almost ex- 
clusively, planters, owning large areas of fertile soil and rais- 
ing principally tobacco, cotton, rice and sugar — crops which 
could be successfully cultivated by negro slaves. 

Let it be remembered that no question of immorality in 
buying, selling, working or holding slaves was suggested for 
many years — in either the Northern or Southern States. Un- 
der all these conditions, those who held slaves in the Noxih 



20 ALL AROUND THE CIVIL WAR 

were glad to find a market for them in the South, and it was 
chiefly through this market that slavery became extinct in the 
former. And not only did the Northern slave owners con- 
tribute in this way to the continuance of slavery, but being 
traders, ship-builders and sailors, some of them engaged in the 
"African slave trade," organizing companies for carrying it 
on and making fortunes by the nefarious traffic, without re- 
proach from the people of the States where they resided. 

It is related of one James D'Wolf, who was a Senator from 
Rhode Island, that he resigned from the Senate to become 
President of a slave-trading company. Being told that the 
trade was to be declared piracy, he replied, "So much the bet- 
ter for us; the 'Yankees' zvill be the only people not scared off 
by such a declaration."^ 

From what has been said it appears that the people residing 
in the Northern States engaged in importing slaves, and that 
the Southern people were not at all engaged in it. The South- 
ern States were first in disapproving the slave trade. In co- 
lonial days Virginia made frequent appeals to Great Britain 
to suppress it, but was overruled by the Crown. In nearly 
every Southern State laws were enacted forbidding the im- 
portation of slaves. Virginia was the first State to prohibit it. 



i*'The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government," J. Davis, Vol. I, p. 84. 



OR BEFORE AND AFTER 21 

The fact is, slavery was practically forced upon the South for 
the pecuniary benefit of those who were engaged in the 
"trade." 

Art. I, Sec. 9, clause i of the Constitution made the slave- 
trade legitimate until the year 1808. In 1784 Virginia ceded 
to the United States her vast territory northwest of the Ohio 
River. The ordinance for the government of this territory 
contained, among others, one article which provided that 
"there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in 
the said territory, etc.," which provision was not only acceded 
to by Virginia, but the ordinance was adopted at her express 
instance. Thus it is evident that the people of the Southern 
States deplored the existence of slavery; that they were not 
only willing, but desirous to have it restricted to the limits 
where it existed. But the number of slaves increased rapidly, 
keeping pace with the general increase in the whole country 
in population and material development, and when a political 
party arose, whose aim and object it was to forcibly emanci- 
pate the slaves, to deprive part of the States of rights guar- 
anteed to them by the Constitution, and protected by the laws 
of Congress — rights which the highest courts had decided be- 
longed to them; after having appealed to Congress and to 
their brethren of the Northern States not to infringe upon 



22 ALL AROUND THE CIVIL WAR 

these rights, it was painfully evident that some other remedy 
must be found to secure them, and the only thing to do was to 
withdraw from the Union and set up a government of their 
own. Hence came 

SECESSION, 

Examples of claims for the right to secede from the Union 
and for the exercise of this right are not wanting. The first 
exercise of it was when every State seceded from the Union 
formed under the "Articles of Confederation," and formed a 
new Union under the Constitution. The right was frequently 
"asserted in Massachusetts and other New England States." 
The acquisition of Louisiana in i8o_^ was made a special occa- 
sion for its claim. Mr. Timothy Pickering, long a Senator 
from Massachusetts, in a letter written Dec. 24, 180 j, said: 
"I will not yet despair. I rather anticipate a new confederacy, 
exempt from the corrupt and corrupting influence and oppres- 
sion of the aristocratic democrats of the South. There will 
be (and our children, at farthest, will see it) a separation." 
In another letter written January 2g, 1804, he said : "The prin- 
ciples of our Revolution point to a remedy — a separation. 
That this can be accomplished, and without spilling one drop 
of blood, I have little doubt. * * * A Northern Confederacy 



OR BEFORE AND AFTER 23 

would unite congenial characters. * * * The Southern 
States would require the naval protection of the Northern 
Union, and the produce of the former would be important to 
the navigation and commerce of the latter. It (the separation) 
must begin in Massachusetts/' and he had no doubt all the 
New England States would join the new confederacy — also 
New York and New Jersey. In February, 1804, he wrote 
further : "The public debts might be equitably apportioned." 
"A friendly and commercial intercourse would be maintained 
with the States in the Southern Confederacy. * * * It is 
not unusual for two friends, when disagreeing about the mode 
of conducting a common concern, to separate and manage, 
each in his own way, his separate interest, and thereby pre- 
serve a useful friendship which, without such separation, 
would infallibly be destroyed."^ 

In 1811 a bill for the admission of Louisiana as a State 
being under consideration, Mr. Josiah Quincy, of Massachu- 
setts, said: "If this bill passes, it is my deliberate opinion 
that it is virtually a dissolution of this Union ; that it will free 
the States from their moral obligation; and as it will be the 
right of all, so it will be the duty of some, definitely to prepare 



i"The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government," J. Davis, Vol. I, pp. 71, 
72i 73- (Quoted from "Life of Cabot Lodge," pp. 334, 491, 338, 340, 446.) 



24 ALL AROUND THE CIVIL WAR 

for a separation — amicably if they can, violently if they must.' 
A member from Mississippi Territory thereupon called Mr. 
Quincy to order, and was sustained by the speaker. An appeal 
was taken frorri the speaker's decision, and it -was reversed. 
Mr. Quincy then proceeded, saying, "Is there a principle of 
public law better settled or more conformable to the plainest 
suggestions of reason, than that the violation of a contract by 
one of the parties may be considered as exempting the other 
from its obligations, etc."^ 

In December, 1814, during the war with Great Britain, a 
convention, composed of delegates from New England States, 
met at Hartford, Conn., it is understood, for the purpose of 
considering the question of withdrawing the States repre- 
sented, from the Union ; and it is beyond doubt that this matter 
was considered as, in a published report they say, "some new 
form of confederacy should be substituted among those States 
which shall intend to maintain a federal relation to each other. 
* * * Whenever it shall appear that the causes" (for disso- 
lution) "are radical and permanent, a separation by equitable 
arrangement will be preferable to an alliance by constraint 
among nominal friends, but real enemies."" 



i"The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government," Vol. I, pp. 73, 74, 75. 



O R BEFORE AN D AFTER 25 

In 1844, when the annexation of Texas was being consid- 
ered, the Legislature of Massachusetts declared that "the Com- 
monwealth of Massachusetts, faithful to the compact between 
the people of the United States, according to the plain mean- 
ing and intent in ivhich it zvas understood by them, is sin- 
cerely anxious for its preservation ; but that it is determined, as 
it doubts not other States are, to submit to undelegated powers 
in no body of men on earth" ; and "the project of the annexa- 
tion of Texas, unless arrested on the threshold, may tend to 
drive these States into a dissolution of the Union."^ 

Feb. II, 1845, the same Legislature declared that, "as the 
powers of legislation granted in the Constitution of the United 
States to Congress do not embrace a case of the admission of 
a foreign State or foreign territory, by legislation, into the 
Union ; such an act of admission would have no binding force 
whatever on the people of Massachusetts." 

It will be seen from the above that almost from the date 
when the Constitution was adopted, that is from i8oj and to 
1845, the New England States and some of their eminent 
statesmen asserted, contended for and insisted upon the right 
of any State to secede from the Union, and that each State 
had the right to determine for itself upon what provocation 



*"R. & F. Confederate Government," V^ol. I, p. 76. 



26 ALL AROUND THE CIVIL WAR 

this right should be exercised, and that the "Commonwealth 
of Massachusetts," particularly, asserted the right to construe 
the provisions of the Constitution for herself, and to be bound 
only by "the plain meaning and intent with which it was under- 
stood by them." 

The right to secede from the Union was clearly reserved 
to the States, as the right to coerce a State is not conferred 
by the Constitution upon Congress. 

The course of events between i8ji (at which time William 
Lloyd Garrison established "The Liberator," a newspaper per- 
sistently advocating the entire and immediate abolition of 
African slavery in America) and i860, when Abraham Lin- 
coln was elected President, justified the people in the Southern 
States in apprehending that the policy of the Government 
henceforward would be not merely to limit African slavery 
to the States where it already existed — was recognized by the 
Constitution, and was protected by the Laws of the country — 
but to abolish it in all the States. The anti-slavery party had 
now become dominant — practically sovereign — independent of 
and unlimited by any other power. It was a sectional party. 
It elected to the presidency a man who had said that the Union 
"could not permanently endure half slave and half free." 
The Constitution had been denounced as a "Covenant with 



O R BEFORE AN D AFT ER 27 

hell." One of its leaders had declared that "Congress was 
bound to prohibit it (slavery) in, or to exclude it from any 
and every Federal Territory," thus claiming that Congress 
could set aside the provisions of the Constitution and deprive 
certain citizens of the enjoyment of the only kind of property 
which was especially recognized by it. 

Another leader of the party had predicted an "irrepressible 
conflict," and had proclaimed "a higher law than the Con- 
stitution." The meaning of all which is that the party was 
determined to rule the country according to its own ideas, 
without regard to Constitution or Law. 

What caused the Northern States to contemplate their 
withdrawal from the Union in 1803, 18 14 and 1845? It was 
not that any of their Constitutional rights had been infringed, 
or even threatened; it was not that their material interests 
were endangered! It was because of their hatred of the so- 
called "Aristocratic Democrats of the South," and because 
the acquisition of Southern territory seemed to promise addi- 
tional influence to the South in the government of the country 
— a seeming promise that was never fulfilled, as this acquisi- 
tion subsequently contributed greatly to the enlargement of 
their commerce, manufactures and wealth. 

It may be not improperly asked, "if a consideration of their 



28 ALL AROUND THE CIVIL WAR 

material prosperity did not largely influence them in 1861 to 
deny to the South the right previously claimed for themselves?" 

Carefully read the Declaration of Independence. Where 
reference is made to the King, substitute the words "Repub- 
lican Party," and a close similarity will be seen between the 
acts of the former and those of the later (would-be) sover- 
eign, committed prior and subsequent to i860! If the Anti- 
slavery or Republican Party, up to i860, had not committed 
all the sins against the Southern States which the King had 
committed against the colonies, it was evident that they were 
capable of them and intended to follow his example, unless 
their reckless demands were submitted to. 

The imagined dangers to their interests which had so in- 
flamed the Northern mind were as nothing, even if they were 
real, when compared with the actual danger overhanging the 
South in i860. This latter danger portended the overthrow 
of the Constitution, the obliteration of States' rights ; the abso- 
lute subjection of the Southern to the Northern States; the 
loss of vast property and the utter demoralization of their 
most serious domestic concerns. The Southern States might, 
of their own accord, have abolished slavery, and there was a 
growing sentiment among them in favor of so doing, not 
because it was admitted to be immoral, but for the reason 



OR BEFORE AND AFTER 29 

that its continuance would permanently prevent the influx of 
a desirable population and the development of great natural 
resources. But the intolerant disposition of the Northern 
people checked the growth of this sentiment, and united the 
South in a determination to resist encroachment upon its rights 
by any and all means. The compulsory abandonment of a 
valuable domestic institution, having a constitutional legal ex- 
istence, at the behest of a combination of people in other 
States — people who were almost exclusively responsible for 
its existence, and had profited by establishing it — would have 
been a sacrifice of honor, and the abnegation of self-resoect by 
a people claiming both in an eminent degree. 

Eleven States, exercising a power reserved to them by 
virtue of the fact that no power had been delegated to the 
United States to prevent it, passed Ordinances of Secession, 
and three others were prevented from doing so only by military 
forces which had invaded them. 

Attention is called to the fact that a "Perpetual Union" is 
not provided for in the Constitution. 

Thomas Jefferson declared, in considering the principles of 
the Constitution, "If we countenance a political intolerance, 
despotic, wicked, capable of wicked persecution, we have 
gained little" * * * "the support of the State governments 



30 ALL AROUND THE CIVIL WAR 

in all their rights as the most competent administration for 
our domestic concerns."^ 

James Madison, referring to the principles of the Consti- 
tution, declared the purposes of Government to be "to prefer, 
in all cases, amicable discussion and reasonable accommoda- 
tion of differences, to a decision of them by an appeal to arms." 
* * * "to foster a spirit of independence, too just to invade 
the rights of others, too proud to surrender our own; to re- 
spect the rights and authorities reserved to the States and to 
the people."^ 

Numerous citations might be made of the opinions and 
remarks of eminent men from both sections of the country — 
men who were not advocates for the exercise of the rights 
reserved to the States — similar to the above, but it is not con- 
sidered necessary. 

It has been said that the South acted hastily in seceding, 
but when you have been advised that your house is to be 
broken into, you do not wait until the burglar has gotten in 
to make preparations to meet the emergency. 

The idea of seceding was first entertained by our brethren 
of Massachusetts. Soon after the founding of different colo- 



^"The Constitution," W. Hickey, p. 31. 
-Idem, p. 32. 



O R BEFORE AN D AFT ER 31 

nies there began to arise sectional jealousies. The Southern 
colonies having the more genial climate, the more fertile soil 
and a more extensive area than the Northern. These advan- 
tages naturally led to the apprehension that the South would 
become the more populous and prosperous section, and so be- 
come dominant in the Government. It was therefore inevi- 
table that, in the formation of any Union of the colonies under 
a General Government, the less favored section should desire 
such organization as would provide for a "Perpetual Union" 
(as was set forth in the preamble and title of the "Articles of 
Confederation, etc.," adopted by Congress Nov. 5, 1777, and 
subsequently ratified by the several Legislatures), and would 
also provide for reciprocal commerce. The Organization ef- 
fected under the "Articles" was found inadequate to the "exi- 
gencies of the Union, "in that they did not provide means 
sufficient to pay the debts already incurred and to meet current 
expenses." Steps were taken to remedy these defects, and in 
a Constitution, superseding the "Articles of Confederation," 
powers were conferred upon Congress to raise revenue and to 
regulate commerce. 

That the "Articles of Confederation, etc.," would estab- 
lish a "Perpetual Union," and that the Constitution which 
superseded them makes no reference to such thing, argues that 



32 ALL AROUND THE CIVIL WAR 

the idea was abandoned as an absurdity, if by "Perpetual," it 
was meant that the Union would be "neverceasing-unend- 
ing." If the Union formed was to exist perpetually, it fol- 
lows that the agreement by which it was formed must also be 
"neverceasing-unending," and this we have seen is not the 
case, as that agreement was made null and void by the adop- 
tion of the Constitution, whereby all the States seceded from 
the former Union. 

If the prerogative of secession was claimed by the New 
England States, for reasons which justified it to their own 
judgments, how could they conscientiously deny it to other 
and equal States? 

When South Carolina ceded to the United States forts and 
sites for their erection within her boundaries, it was done upon 
certain conditions, by which the United States were to repair 
the fortifications already existing, and to keep a garrison or 
garrisons therein, within three years from the passage of the 
act, and if these things were not done as stipulated, in such 
case the grant or cession was to be null and void/ These con- 
ditions were not complied with, and consequently the owner- 
ship of the forts and sites reverted to the State, and possession 



i"R. & F. Confederate Government," Vol. I, p. 210. Quoted from Statutes at 
Large of S. C, Vol. V, p. 501. 



OR BEFORE AND AFTER 33 

was demanded when the State resumed sovereignty. This, 
however, was refused. 

When New York granted a site for the Brooklyn Navy 
Yard, it was done on the express condition that "so long as the 
said tract shall be applied to the defense and safety of the city 
and port of New York, and no longer, shall the United States 
retain it.'" 

When Massachusetts made similar cession, she claimed 
concurrent jurisdiction^ 

From the above it is seen that, in the cases mentioned, the 
forts and sites were not conveyed to the United States in fee 
simple, or to hold forever. 

On Dec. 20, i860, South Carolina passed an Ordinance of 
secession. Almost immediately thereafter she sent to Wash- 
ington commissioners to "Treat with the Government of the 
United States for the delivery of the forts * * * for an ap- 
portionment of the public debt * * * for the continuance of 
peace and amity, etc.," evincing a desire to deal honorably 
and in good faith. 

Dec. J I, i860. Major Robert Anderson, who with a gar- 
rison occupied Fort Moultrie, in Charleston Harbor, received 



'"R. & F. Confederate Government," Vol. I, p. 209. 

^Idem. Quoted from Revised Statutes of Mass., 1836, p. 56. 



34 ALL AROUND THE CIVIL WAR 

instructions from the War Department in Washington in part, 
as follows : "Carefully avoid every act which would needlessly 
tend to provoke aggression." * * * "You are not, without 
evident and imminent necessity, to take up any position which 
could be construed into the assumption of a hostile attitude." 
* * * "An attack upon either of them (the three forts in 
Charleston Harbor) will be regarded as an act of hostility, and 
you may then put your command in either of them."^ 

The Commissioners reached Washington Dec. 26, i860, 
but before they could communicate with President Buchanan, 
they learned that Major Anderson had "secretly dismantled 
Fort Moultrie and had occupied Fort Sumter" — a more com- 
manding position — thus changing the status quo, in which it 
was understood President Buchanan had agreed there should 
be no change, the assurance having been made to him by South 
Carolina's representatives in Congress that there was no pres- 
ent intention of attacking the forts. It cannot be doubted that 
Major Anderson thought much was permitted to his own dis- 
cretion; that he was governed by a sense of honor and duty; 
nevertheless, his act was looked upon by the people of South 
Carolina as one of bad faith. The Commissioners, in a letter 



^"R. & F. Confederate Government," Vol. I, p. 212. Quoted from Buchanan's 
Administration, Chap. IX, p. 165 and Chap. II, pp. 212-214. 



O R BEFORE AN D AFTER 35 

addressed to the President Dec. 28, i860, protested against it, 
and entreated him to withdraw the troops from Charleston 
Harbor to prevent a bloody issue from "questions which ought 
to be settled with temperance and judgment.'" They also 
called his attention to the fact that South Carolina "could, at 
any time within the last sixty days, have taken possession of 
the forts."' To this letter the President replied Dec. 30th, that 
he had "no authority to decide what shall be the relations be- 
tween the Federal Government and South Carolina."^ This 
question he had not been asked to decide, but as Commander- 
in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, he did 
have the authority to withdraw the troops. 

The President replied further, * * * "It is therefore my 
duty to submit to Congress the whole question in all its bear- 
ings. * * * It is not believed that any attempt will be made 
to expel the United States from this property by force." "// 
was my determination * * * not to reinforce the forts in the 
harbor and thus produce a collision, until they had been actu- 
ally attacked, or until I had certain evidence that they were 
about to be attacked." 

About Dec. 28th the President was informed that "the 



i"R. & F. Confederate Government," Vol. I, p. 592. 
^ Idem. 
^Idcm, p. 593. 



36 ALL AROUND THE CIVIL WAR 

Palmetto flag floated out to the breeze at Castle Pinckney, and 
a large military force went over last night {2yth) to Fort 
Moultrie," and in connection with this he wrote : "Thus the 
authorities of South Carolina, * * * doubtless believing 
* * * that the officer had acted not only without, but against 
my orders, etc."^ 

It is not to be inferred that, in occupying forts and raising 
her flag over them, she intended to attack Fort Sumter, but 
rather to prepare for defense against attack, which an act of 
bad faith, as she construed it, led her to believe would be made 
on her. 

Jan. I, 1861, the Commissioners, replying to the Presi- 
dent's communication of Dec. 30th, wrote: * * * "In your 
annual message you declared that you had no right and would 
not attempt to coerce a seceding State. * * * You did not 
reinforce the garrisons in the harbor of Charleston. You re- 
moved a distinguished and veteran officer from the command 
of Fort Moultrie, because he attempted to increase his supply 
of ammunition. You refused to send additional troops to the 
same garrison when applied for by the officer appointed to suc- 
ceed him. You accepted the resignation of the oldest and 
most eminent member of your Cabinet, rather than allow the 



^"R. & F. Confederate Governijient," Vol. I, pp. 594-596. 



O R BEFORE AN D AFT ER 37 

garrison to be strengthened. You compelled an officer sta- 
tioned at Fort Sumter to return immediately to the arsenal 
forty muskets which he had taken to arm his men." * * * 
Referring to Major Anderson's evacuating Fort Moultrie, 
spiking the guns, etc., and removing to Fort Sumter, the Com- 
missioners wrote to the President, "This is war. * * * For 
this act, with all its attending circumstances, was as much war 
as firing a volley. * * * You have resolved to hold by force 
what you have obtained through our inisplaced confidence. 
* * * By your course you have probably rendered civil war 
inevitable." This was the last communication from the Com- 
missioners to the President, and he declined to receive it, as 
shown by an endorsement on it, because "it is of such a char- 
acter, etc." 

In February, 1861, a plan was proposed for reinforcing 
and furnishing supplies to the garrison of Fort Sumter. Lieu- 
tenant-General Scott advised the President that the fort could 
not he relieved and miist be given up.^ March iJfJi, the pro- 
posal was renewed, Mr. Lincoln at this time being President, 
and he agreed to it. A confidential agent was sent to Charles- 
ton to "spy out the land," the better to determine the practica- 
bility of carrying out the plan. This agent arrived in Charles- 



^"R. & F. Confederate Government," Vol. I, p. 271. 



38 ALL AROUND THE CIVIL WAR 

ton March 21, 1861. He obtained permission from Governor 
Pickens to visit the fort "expressly upon the pledge of pacific 
purposes."^ The plan was not made Icnown to Major Ander- 
son by this agent, but he was aware that suggestion had been 
made for the reHef and reinforcement of the garrison, for on 
April 8th, he had written to the Adjutant-General United 
States Army that * * * "it is, of course, now too late for 
me to give any advice in reference to the proposed scheme. 
I fear that its results cannot fail to be disastrous to all con- 
cerned."^ The agent returned to Washington and reported; 
his plan was approved by President Lincoln, and he was sent 
to New York to make arrangements for its execution. An- 
other confidential agent soon followed the first — one Lamon — 
who announced that "he had come to arrange for the removal 
of the garrison," and said "he hoped to return in a few days 
for that purpose."^ 

Other States than South Carolina sent Commissioners to 
Washington hoping to arrange for peaceable separation and 
the avoidance of war, but all efforts directed to this end proved 
unavailing. It was evidently the intention of the Federal 
Government to coerce the seceding States, and all promises 



^"R. & F. Confederate Government," Vol. I, p. 272. 
^Idem, p. 283. 
^Idetn, p. 372. 



O R B EFORE AN D AFTER 39 

not to reinforce Fort Sumter were made in bad faith — with 
intent to deceive. 

Jan. p, 1861, a vessel, loaded with troops, attempted to 
enter Charleston, but was driven away by batteries on the 
shore. All efforts made by individual States and by the Con- 
federate Government to avoid war having failed, Fort Sumter 
was fired upon April 12, 1861, due notice having been given 
to the commanding officer. The next day the fort surren- 
dered, and the garrison was permitted to retire with the honors 
of war. At this time a fleet of armed vessels was lying off the 
port of Charleston, and the commander of the Pazvnee is 
reported to have refused to enter without orders from a supe- 
rior, "There to inaugurate civil war."^ 

While these things were taking place around Charleston, 
the general condition of the country, the right of secession, 
etc., were freely discussed in newspapers and in all places 
where "two or three were gathered together." 

March 4, 1861, President Lincoln, in his inaugural mes- 
sage, said : "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to in- 
terfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it 



i"R. & F. Confederate Government," Vol. I, p. 292. 



40 ALL AROUND THE CIVIL WAR 

exists; I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no 
inclination to do so."^ 

When Gen. John C. Fremont issued a proclamation, 
emancipating the slaves of certain persons, President Lincoln 
countermandea it. But Jan. i, i86j, Mr. Lincoln issued a 
"Proclamation of Emancipation," declaring all slaves in the 
seceding States to be free. There is certainly no authority 
conferred upon a President by the Constitution to take such 
step under any circumstances. 

Nov. p, i860. The New York Tribune said, "We hold with 
Jefferson to the inalienable right of communities to alter or 
abolish forms of government that have become oppressive or 
injurious; and if the Cotton States shall decide that they can 
do better out of the Union than in it, we insist on letting them 
go in peace. The right to secede may be a revolutionary right, 
but it exists, nevertheless; and we do not see how one party 
can have a right to do what another party has a right to pre- 
vent. We must resist the asserted right of any State to re- 
main in the Union and nullify or defy the laws thereof; to 
withdrazv from the Union is quite another matter. And, 
whenever a considerable section of our Union shall deliber- 
ately resolve to go out, we shall resist all coercive measures 



i"K. & F. Confederate Government," Vol. I, p. 262. 



OR BEFORE AND AFTER 41 

designed to keep her in. We hope never to live in a republic 
whereof one section is pinned to the residue by bayonets." 

The Albany Argus said, "We sympathize with and justify 
the South as far as this : their rights have been invaded to the 
extreme Hmit possible within the forms of the Constitution; 
and, beyond this limit, their feelings have been insulted and 
their interests and honor assailed by almost every form of 
denunciation and invective; and if we deemed it certain that 
the real animus of the Republican Party could be carried into 
the administration of the Federal Government and become the 
permanent policy of the nation, we should think that all the 
instincts of self-preservation and of manhood rightfully im- 
pelled them to resort to a revolution and a separation from 
the Union, and we would applaud them and wish them God- 
speed in the adoption of such a remedy." (The South was 
fully convinced "that the real animus of the Republican Party" 
had "become the permanent policy of the nation.") 

In a later issue The Albany Argus said, "If South Caro- 
lina, or any other State, through a convention of her people 
shall formally separate herself from the Union, probably both 
the present and the next Executive will simply let her alone 
and quietly allow all the functions of the Federal Government 
within her limits to be suspended. Any other course would be 



42 ALL AROUND THE CIVIL WAR 

madness, as it would at once enlist all the Southern States in 
the controversy and plunge the whole country into a civil war. 
* * * As a matter of policy and wisdom, therefore, independ- 
ent of the question of right, we should deem resort to force 
most disastrous." 

The New York Herald said, "Each State is organized as 
a complete government, holding the purse and wielding the 
sword, possessing the right to break the tie of the confedera- 
tion as a nation might break a treaty, and to repel coercion as 
a nation might repel invasion. * * * Coercion, if it were 
possible, is out of the question." 

Jan. 5/, 1 86 1, at a mass meeting in the city of New X^rk, 
Mr. James S. Thayer said : "We can at least * * * arrive 
at the basis of a peaceable separation; we can * * * gj^. 
lighten, settle and concentrate the public sentiment in the State 
of New York upon this question and save it from that fearful 
current, which circuitously but certainly sweeps madly on, 
through the narrow gorge of 'the enforcement of the laws,' 
to the shoreless ocean of civil war. Against this, under all 
circumstances, in every place and form, we must now and at 
all times oppose a resolute and unfaltering resistance. * * * 
If a revolution of force is to begin, it shall be inaugurated at 
home. And if the incoming administration shall attempt to 



OR BEFORE AND AFTER 



43 



carry out the line of policy that has been foreshadowed, we 
announce that when the hand of Black Republicanism turns to 
blood-red, and seeks from the fragments of the Constitution 
to construct a scaffolding for coercion — another name for exe- 
cution — we will reverse the order of the French Revolution, 
and save the blood of the people by making those who would 
inaugurate a reign of terror the first victims of a national 
guillotine." 

At the same meeting, ex-Governor Seymour asked the 
questions whether "successful coercion by the North is less 
revolutionary than successful secession by the South? Shall 
we prevent a revolution by being foremost in overthrowing 
the principles of our Government and all that makes it valu- 
able to our people and distinguishes it among the nations of 
the earth?" 

And ex-Chancellor Walworth said : "It would be as brutal, 
in my opinion, to send men to butcher our own brothers of the 
Southern States, as it would be to massacre them in the North- 
ern States. We are told, however, that it is our duty to, and 
we must, enforce the laws. But why — and what laws are to 
be enforced? There were laws to be enforced in the time of 
the American Revolution. * * * Did Lord Chatham go for 
enforcing those laws? No, he gloried in defense of the liber- 



44 ALL AROUND THE CIVIL WAR 

ties of America. He made that memorable declaration in the 
British Parliament. 'If I were an American citizen instead of 
being, as I am, an Englishman, I would never submit to such 
laws. Never, never, never.' " 

In February, 1861, The Detroit Free Press said, "If there 
should not be a change in the present seeming purpose to yield 
to no accommodation of the national difficulties, and if troops 
shall be raised in the North to march against the people of 
the South, a Hre in the rear will be opened upon such troops, 
which will either stop their march altogether or wonderfully 
accelerate it." 

The Union newspaper, published in Bangor, Me., said, 
"The difficulties between the North and the South must be 
compromised, or the separation of the States shall be peaceable. 
If the Republican Party refuse to go the full length of the 
Crittenden amendment — which is the very least the South can 
or ought to take — then, here in Maine, not a Democrat will be 
found who will raise his arm against his brethren of the South. 
From one end of the State to the other let the cry of the De- 
mocracy be, COMPROMISE OR PEACEABLE SEPARA- 
TION." 

(The Crittenden amendment proposed, among other things, 
the restoration and incorporation into the Constitution of the 



OR BEFORE AND AFTER 45 

Missouri Compromise, made in 1820, which estabHshed a 
line, 36' 30" north latitude, above which slavery was ex- 
cluded. Much of this northern territory had been acquired 
from France by treaty and purchase, and the treaty was vio- 
lated by such exclusion, as it guaranteed to the inhabitants of 
sai'd territory "all the rights, advantages and immunities of 
citizens of the United States, and the free enjoyment of their 
liberty, property and the religion they profess.") 

It will be seen from the words of eminent men and influ- 
ential newspapers, as above quoted — men and newspapers of 
various party affiliations and of no party affiliations — that there 
existed in many of the Northern States a decided sentiment 
opposed to coercion, and in favor of the States' rights doctrine 
upon which the South claimed the right of secession. 

March ip, 1861, The New York Herald, referring to the 
Constitution of the Confederate States which had been adopted 
March 11, said, "The Constitution is the Constitution of the 
United States with various modifications and some very im- 
portant and most desirable improvements. We are free to 
say that the invaluable reforms enumerated should be adopted 
by the United States, with or without a reunion of the seceded 
States, and as soon as possible. But why not accept them 



46 ALL AROUND THE CIVIL WAR 

with the propositions of the Confederate States on slavery as 
a basis of reunion?" 

Fort Sumter having surrendered on April ij, 1861, on 
April 15th President Lincoln called out the military of the 
several States to the number of seventy-five thousand men, 
and this hastened the convention of Virginia delegates to pass 
an ordinance of secession, which was done April 17th, and 
war began in earnest. The Constitution confers upon Con- 
gress power to "raise armies and to declare war." There is 
not one word in it that can by any possibility be construed into 
meaning that the President has such power. His calling for 
seventy-five thousand men was an usurpation. 

The war now begun continued until the spring of 1865. 
April p, 1865, General R. E. Lee surrendered to General U. S. 
Grant. 

April 26, 1865, General J. E. Johnston surrendered to 
General W. T. Sherman, and all other Confederate armies 
finally surrendered. The de facto government was a thing of 
the past. 

The war had been conducted on the part of the Confed- 
erate States with strict regard to the rules of war among civil- 
ized peoples. On the part of the Federal Government these 
rules were not so strictly observed. Numerous acts of cruelty 



OR BEFORE AND AFTER 



47 



and outrage were committed. "They waged an indiscriminate 
war upon all: private houses in isolated places were bom- 
barded and burned ; grain crops in the field were consumed by 
the torch; and when the torch was not applied, careful labor 
was bestowed to render complete the destruction of every 
article of use or ornament remaining in private dwellings 
after their female inhabitants had fled from the insults of 
brutal soldiers; a petty war was made on the sick, including 
women and children, by carefully devised measures to prevent 
them from obtaining necessary medicines."^ Generals Sher- 
man, Sheridan, Pope, Hunter, B. F. Butler, Milroy, and 
Colonels Grierson and Dahlgren, were chief among those who 
violated those rules. The only act of retaliation by any Con- 
federate force during the war was that of General J. A. Early, 
committed on Chambersburg, Pa., July jo, 1864, when the 
town was burned after notice had been given of his intention. 
Many prisoners being captured from time to time, the dic- 
tates of humanity demanded that arrangements should be 
made for their exchange. A cartel for this purpose was exe- 
cuted July 22, 1862. The carrying out of this agreement was 
made difficult by the officials of the Federal Government upon 
various pretexts. General B. F. Butler, who was thought to 



i"R. & F. Confederate Government," Vol. II, p. 5. 



48 ALL AROUND THE CIVIL WAR 

be responsible for delaying or interrupting the carrying out 
the cartel, says in his defense that he was directed "to put the 
matter offensively for the purpose of preventing an ex- 
change."'' On August i8, 1864, General U. S. Grant wrote to 
General Butler: "It is hard on our men held in Southern 
prisons not to exchange them, but it is humanity to those left 
in the ranks to fight our battles. Every man released on 
parole, or otherwise, becomes an active soldier against us, 
either directly or indirectly. If we commence a system of ex- 
change, which liberates all prisoners taken, we will have to 
fight on until the whole South is exterminated. If we hold 
those caught, they amount to no more than dead men. At this 
particular time to release all rebel prisoners North would in- 
sure Sherman's defeat, and would compromise our safety 
here."" So the cartel was made null and void. 

An impression has been made upon the minds of the 
Northern people that the Confederate authorities were re- 
sponsible for all the sufferings of prisoners held in the South. 
This responsibility is not only denied by the facts, but is shown 
to rest upon the Federals. The supplies of medicine in the 
Confederacy were entirely inadequate for the necessities of 



i"R. & F. Confederate Government," Vol. II, p. 599. 
-Idem, p. 600. 



OR BEFORE AND AFTER 49 

the people. In 1864 Commissioner Ould "made an offer to 
the United States authorities to purchase medicines from them 
to be used exclusively for the relief of Union prisoners. He 
offered to pay in gold, cotton or tobacco, and even to pay two 
or three prices if required, and agreed that such medicines 
might be brought into the Confederate lines by United States 
surgeons and dispensed by them."^ To this offer no reply was 
ever received. 

The prison at Andersonville, Ga,, was one in which a large 
number of Union prisoners were confined, and in which it 
was alleged they were treated most cruelly. A delegation of 
these prisoners was sent to Washington with the hope that 
they might induce their Government, in some way, to ameli- 
orate their condition. They were made to understand that 
the interest of the Government required that they should re- 
turn to prison and remain there. And this they did. The 
editor of Southern Historical Papers says, "We have a letter 
from the wife of the chairman of that delegation (now dead) 
in which she says that her husband always said that he was 
treated more contemptuously by Secretary of War Stanton 
than he ever was at Andersonville." 

One of the prisoners, Henry M. Brennan, writes : "I was 



i"R. & F. Confederate Government," \'o\. II, p. 6oi 



50 ALL AROUND THE CIVIL WAR 

at Andersonville when the delegation of prisoners spoken of 
left there to plead our cause with the authorities at Washing- 
ton; and nobody can tell, unless it be a shipwrecked and 
famished mariner, who sees a vessel approaching and then 
passing on without rendering the required aid, what fond 
hopes were raised and how hope sickened into despair, waiting 
for the answer that never came. In my opinion, and that of 
a good many others, a good part of the responsibility for the 
horrors of Andersonville rests with General U. S. Grant, who 
refused to make a fair exchange of prisoners."^ 

That more and avoidable cruelty was practised upon Con- 
federate soldiers in Northern prisons than upon Federal sol- 
diers in Southern prisons is abundantly proven by the fact that 
out of 220,000 of the former 26,000 died, while of the latter, 
out of 270,000, 22,000 died.- 

From the beginning of the war, and for some time after, 
high officials of the United States were anxious to spread 
abroad in this country and in Europe declarations of the pur- 
poses of the Government, of what it intended to do and what 
not to do. April 22, 1861, W. H. Seward, Secretary of State, 
in a despatch to the United States Minister to France, wrote 



i"R. & F. Confederate Government," Vol. II, p. 603. 
'Idem, p. 607. 



OR BEFORE AND AFTER 51 

as follows : "The territories will remain the same in all re- 
spects, whether the revolution shall succeed or shall fail? The 
condition of slavery in the several States will remain just the 
same, whether it succeed or fail. There is not even a pretext for 
the complaint that the disaffected States are to be conquered by 
the United States if the revolution fails; for the rights of the 
States and the condition of every being in them will remain 
subject to exactly the same laws and forms of administration, 
whether the revolution shall succeed or whether it shall faiF. 
In one case, the States would be federally connected with the 
new Confederacy; in the other they would, as now, be mem- 
bers of the United States; hut their Constitutions and laws, 
customs, habits and institutions, in either case, will remain the 
same."^ Similar views were expressed by many, and had they 
been honestly carried out, much suffering and anxiety would 
have been spared to the whole country. The Constitutions of 
the several States in 1865 had been adopted by the people in 
conformity with the principles of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence and of the Constitution of the United States. The 
Legislatures had been organized, and the members had been 
elected in accordance with those principles. Dc jure govern- 
ments, republican in form, existed in all these States, and there 



i"R. & F. Confederate Government," Vol. I, pp. 262-263. 



52 ALL AROUND THE CIVIL WAR 

was no authority which lawfully existed for their overthrow. 
According to the views of the Secretary, above cited, when the 
armies of the Confederacy laid down their arms, and the revo- 
lution had failed, inasmuch as the Governments of the seced- 
ing States had been continuous before and since 1860-61, and 
as the Government of the United States had denied that they, 
or any of them, were ever "out of the Union," the plain in- 
ference is, that they zvere still in the Union on an equality 
with all other States. 

During the progress of the war, those in position to de- 
termine the policy of the Government of the United States in 
disregard of the Constitution became more and more influen- 
tial, until they finally dictated what it should be. 

August 6, 1861, Congress passed an act of Confiscation, in 
reference to which President Lincoln said : *'It is startling to 
say that Congress can free a slave within a State. "^ In dis- 
cussing this bill, Thaddeus Stevens asked : "Who pleads the 
Constitution against our proposed action f"^ When discussing 
the rape intended upon the State of Virginia, 1861-62, and the 
erection of a new State within her boundaries and jurisdic- 



*"R. & F. Confederate Government," Vol. II, p. 169. 
^Idem, p. 8. 



OR BEFORE AND AFTER 53 

tion, Mr. Stevens said : "We know that it is not Constitu- 
tional, hut it is necessary." 

Feb. 25, 1861, Charles Sumner, Senator from Massachu- 
setts, declared in Congress : "I do not think that Congress 
has any right to interfere with slavery in a State. "^ 

July 7, 1862, General McClellan, commanding the Federal 
army around Richmond, wrote to the authorities at Washing- 
ton : "A declaration of radical views, especially upon slavery, 
will rapidly disintegrate our armies."^ 

May p, 1862, General Hunter issued an order declaring the 
"persons held as slaves in Georgia, Florida and South Carolina 
to be forever free." (Evidently an attempt to incite the slaves 
to insurrection and all its horrors, and a plain violation of the 
Constitution.) May ipth, President Lincoln declared the 
order void.^ 

July 12, 1862, President Lincoln, alluding to the stress 
being brought to bear for the emancipation of slaves, re- 
marked : "The pressure in this direction is still upon me, and 
is increasing."* 

Notwithstanding all the promises that had been made that 



^"R. & F. Confederate Government," Vol. II, p. i6o. 

^Idem, pp. 9-10. 
'Idem, p. 181. 
*Idem, p. 182. 



54 ALL AROUND THE CIVIL WAR 

slavery should not be interfered with, the admissions that 
neither the President nor Congress had any right to abolish it, 
as it was protected by the Constitution, and the fear expressed 
by General McClellan that the agitation of the subject would 
"disintegrate our armies," "the pressure brought to bear" 
finally overcame President Lincoln's scruples, and on Sept. 
22, 1862, he issued a preliminary proclamation of emancipa- 
tion. 

It has been claimed that slavery was the cause of the war, 
that the Southern States seceded for the purpose of protect- 
ing and perpetuating it. The truth is that property right in 
slaves was protected and guaranteed by the Constitution ; that 
a political party had become dominant, whose fixed determina- 
tion was to deny this right and to set the slaves free. If the 
denial of any other right, such, for instance, as representation 
in Congress on the basis of population, had been threatened 
for years, and all hope of its continuance, for good and suffi- 
cient reason, had been abandoned, it is reasonable to suppose — 
can it be doubted — that the States to whom the right was de- 
nied — North or South — would have resorted to secession? 

War ceased in the land, but the promise made by Secretary 
Seward, above quoted, that "their Constitutions and laws, 
habits and institutions, will remain the same," proved illusory. 



OR BEFORE AND AFTER 55 

March 2, 186"/, Congress passed what is known as the 
"Reconstruction Act," in part as follows : "Whereas no legal 
State Governments exist in the rebel States * * * and where- 
as it is necessary that peace and good order should be enforced 
in said States until loyal and Republican State Governments 
can be established; therefore, be it enacted, etc., that the said 
rebel States shall be divided into military districts and made 
subject to the military authority of the United States, etc." 

Sec. 2. "That it shall be the duty of the President to as- 
sign to the command of each of said districts an officer of the 
army, not below the rank of brigadier-general, etc." 

A supplemental Reconstruction Act was passed March 23, 
1867. 

The commanding officers were duly appointed and as- 
sumed charge. 

By these acts many of the intelligent, honorable white 
citizens were disfranchised. Those w^ho owned property in 
the States were deprived of any voice in the management of 
State afifairs. The slaves were not only set free, but were 
clothed with all the rights, privileges and duties of citizenship. 
In the meantime swarms of "carpet baggers," following the 
victorious armies, had settled upon the prostrate States, which, 
in their helpless condition, offered rich fields for plunder. 



56 ALL AROUND THE CIVIL WAR 

These monsters, destitute of honor, governed only by base 
selfishness, affiliated with the negroes, organized them into all 
kinds of secret, oath-bound societies, instigating in their igno- 
rant minds sentiments of bitter hatred against the whites, upon 
whom they had been thrust as slaves — principally by "Yankee" 
greed. The horrible conditions brought about by the circum- 
stances can be better imagined than described. 

However, these conditions finally improved. The seceding 
States were restored to the Union ( from which they had never 
departed), and intelligence regained its control. 

It is but natural that the negroes, removed from their 
savage ancestors by only two hundred and fifty years, or less, 
kept in bondage, and, necessarily, in ignorance, though treated 
kindly and with every consideration their numbers and con- 
dition permitted, should be duped by designing scoundrels, 
and should "mistake liberty for license." This they did to 
such excess that the very lives of the States depended upon 
their suppression — a fact now almost universally admitted. 
They had been contented laborers in slavery, and were gener- 
ally loyal to their owners during the war. Considerable num- 
bers, but few in proportion to the whole, left their homes and 
kindred and enlisted in the Federal armies. From the white 
man's standpoint this was commendable. Liberty worth hav- 



OR BEFORE AND AFTER $7 

ing is worth fighting for. It is greatly to their credit, how- 
ever, that the negroes who remained at home were not gnilty 
of insurrection, and no instance is on record of assault upon 
a white woman during the war by them. For the manner 
in which they cultivated the fields, for the respect shown by 
them to women and children during the war, the Southern 
people should be very thankful. 

More than forty years have now passed since the war 
closed. Peace and good-will unite the sections, and a more 
fraternal feeling than ever before exists. The real cause of the 
war was the jealousy — the intolerance — of the New England 
character, called into action by the imagined wrongs and cru- 
elties practised upon the poor negroes, whom they had made 
slaves. Their responsibility seemed to be followed by remorse. 
Men and whole communities went daft, were seized with 
fanatical zeal on the subject, until "judgment had fled to 
brutish beasts and men had lost their reason." But whether 
the cause of the war, oi only an incident leading to it, slavery 
is forever abolished among the people of the United States, 
and the former slaveholders acknowledge a blessing in this. 
Few, if any of them, would restore it if they could. 

Since the emancipation of the slaves, the whole country 
has entered upon a new and better era — an era of happiness 



58 ALL AROUND THE CIVIL WAR 

and prosperity heretofore unknown, and this is largely due to 
the failure of the Southern Confederacy and the abolition of 
slavery. No longer is heard the charge of disloyalty to the 
Government. We are again an united people, as our fore- 
fathers were in 1776. In our patriotism there is no sectional- 
ism. The only strife among us is in the noble emulation of 
who can best strive and best serve for the public good. The 
most prominent cause of sectional dissension being removed, 
economic questions are discussed with more patience and for- 
bearance and less acrimony than formerly. There is no threat 
of a crisis in our country's affairs similar to that through 
which we passed forty odd years ago, and the manifest destiny 
of our great Republic is to hold a high place among the na- 
tions forever. We have come to know each other better, and 
this "diffused knowledge has immortalized itself." 

We have "One Country, One Constitution, One Destiny.'^ 
"The union of hearts, the union of hands, 
And the flag of our union forever." 



WAV 29 1908 



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